July Fourth

Lyndon B. Johnson was larger than life in so many ways. He was brilliant and persuasive, petty and vengeful. One of the pettiest parts of his outsized personality manifested itself when someone in the press announced that he was about to select somebody for an administration position. More than once, LBJ got back at that confounded scribe by delaying the announcement or by choosing somebody else.

Flash forward to 2011. The Chronicle’s Brian Rogers reported yesterday that the president had selected Kenneth Magidson to be the next U.S. Attorney in Houston. We had plenty of sources: The White House had informed both Texas senators that it had chosen Magidson and three other Texans. Just one problem. The White House never made an official announcement of the nominations. Call it a premature, unauthorized scoop.